Month: January 2018

This is somewhat of an embarrassing confession, since I am a qualified beauty therapist, but I have always struggled with my skin. As a child, it was eczema/psoriasis, worsened by wearing certain fabrics and dry Adelaide winters, and then it was acne. Like, really bad, teased for, bright red against super pale skin, acne. I know now it was because of hormonal issues like Hashimotos/PCOS, but I had no way of knowing that when I first started to experience problems.

When I was 11, I was prescribed an antibiotic for my acne, every day, twice a day, for about 4 years. Every time I went back to the dermatologist who brushed off my concerns, I was too shy to speak up for myself (something I still struggle with), and so I stayed on them. It utterly ruined my digestive and immune system and after a while I started to experience a whole lot of problems due to that, which I’m still trying to fix. If you’re wondering, it didn’t help my skin. At all.

That’s not what I’m writing about, though. What I’ve finally realised is that my skin never changed, really. It was always sensitive and dry, but the products I was using were dehydrating my skin and causing it to overproduce oil, hence the congestion. I thought: more oil? Need to cleanse more/deeper/harsher, right? Nope. That is a one-way ticket to dehydrating your skin, causing it to over-produce oil to counteract it.

In the past couple of years, as I experimented more with skincare and makeup, I found that I was reacting quite badly to certain exfoliants or changes in weather and diet, the most recent of which was entirely my fault, but I ended up having what seemed like an ‘opposite t-zone’: super dry t-zone, with normal skin on the rest of my face, where it was sucking up all moisture, including barrier creams, no matter how many layers I put on, while continuing to be flaky and painful. What??!! *insert Dali’s scream face here*

There are only two things that helped: remembering that I know what is best for myself, and Asian skincare – Korean in particular.

When I first heard about Korean skincare, I was like; “Tch, that’s way too many products, your skin won’t even notice the difference between one moisturiser and three/a serum/mask/sleeping pack”. BUT IT DOES!!! I cannot live without the products I’ve found, and steps I’ve started to take, and I was lucky enough (after doing much research) to find exactly what I needed on my first try.

Korean skincare, and asian skincare in general, seems to be a world ahead of their western counterparts, and it’s because they address specific skincare concerns, instead of a more general approach that has been typical in the west (although they are catching up – mostly by copying asian skincare trends). From demanding the best ingredients, to the least amount of irritation, sun protection, anti-ageing, etc, it takes a holistic philosophy. While there are specific concerns to be remedied, it’s a process that incorporates diet, sleep, overall health and wellbeing, in tandem with the actual products and usage. It’s all in the same vein of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Confucianism – prevention is better than the cure, and honouring your parents by taking care of your body, and something that was beaten into me studying beauty: it’s all about what you do everyday.

If you keep up good skincare habits everyday, or dietary habits or exercise habits, you can afford to skip this or that once in a while, or eat that doughnut *_* or whatever else. Likewise, it’s not about getting some fillers or botox after you’ve already developed lines – if you rely on quick fixes rather than a lifestyle you choose every day, no matter how much you pay for those ‘miracle cures’ for whatever issue, you’ll invariably have more to keep nipping and tucking, whereas someone who does keep up a daily habit suited to them will be able to achieve a much better outcome combining the two.

As always though: whatever works! If you find the most basic bar soap and water works for you, that’s fine! If you’re happy, you don’t need to change.

When I visited Japan in Winter, 2016, my skin freaked out, and the products I was half-heartedly using did not help. I know, I know, I should know better. In my defence, I don’t have a lot of energy at the best of times dealing with chronic illness, let alone being non-stop for two weeks in dry-ass winter weather, having packed no suitable clothes from my sub-tropical homebase. It took me over a month to get my skin to calm down upon returning, and I learned a very important lesson: to pay attention to my skin and my body, and not just keep blindly following something that worked for me in a different time or situation.

Photo one: Terrible, but it was the only one that illustrated what I’m talking about. Can you see the fine lines? What the heck?! I don’t even have them – they are literally just from dehydration O_O

Photo two: After using a more suitable regime and products for my skin concerns

I’ll be doing a series of posts on the regime I follow and the products I use and would recommend. My ultimate goal is yuri pibu: a Korean term for ‘glass skin’, or skin so clear and glowy it’s like glass, so that I never have to wear makeup again muahahah! One of the many things I’ve been discovering recently – I really hate the feel of makeup on my skin these days. I’m all about the long-term instead of quick fixes – and having limited energy, the less I have to do to get ready in the mornings, the better!

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time but life (surgery, recovery, school, holidays and work) have gotten in the way. So, stay tuned!

So, as you might have garnered from the title, this is an update on life, and in particular, since my surgery. First of all, I have to admit I have been rather absent, but that’s intrinsically connected to the theme.

Pain

For a while there, I felt like I was doing quite well. I had to start my next semester over the summer, so I was weaning myself off painkillers, which wasn’t hard, because I didn’t feel like I needed them anyway. However, the surgeon was very disappointed in my lack of progress and muscle atrophy, although I hadn’t had any physio rehab at all, so I started going back to a Brisbane-based physio that specialises in hypermobility (one which has helped me more than any other physio I have ever been to – not just in terms of progress, which is incredible, but in actually understanding and being knowledgeable of what exactly is going on – instead of just pushing me to do thousands of full squats [insanely bad for my knees] or shaming me for not doing more heavy cardio or box jumps [wtf?!?!]) and started improving my mobility and range of motion (rather than having my leg straight out all the time). Okay, this has been extremely tough. So tough in fact, that I’ve had to get another prescription from the surgeon for Gabapentin, an anti-convulsant, because it seems to be the only thing that helps with widespread pain, and especially the nerve pain I’ve been getting, since there is a huge area with loss of sensation. Lately, I’ve felt like there isn’t even half of a day that’s gone by where I don’t have almost crippling pain, to the point of distraction. It exhausts me, but then I toss and turn all night, because my legs ache so badly.

Rehab

In spite of what I’ve said above, I’m quite happy with recovery overall, at least superficially. My scar is healing fantastically, thanks to Klairs Vitamin C Serum, and massage and stimulation has been helping the scar tissue and numb area. I’ve been bending my knee and walking a lot, which is a huge relief, because I was beginning to feel like a blob ordering everyone to wait on me, hand and…knee (yes, I hate myself extra for that one).

I suspect that it’s because of how the bones in my legs grew (long story short: weirdly), but I find that I simply cannot build up the muscle adequately in my medial quads – on both legs. I gain muscle way too easily in my calves and the lateral quads, however for some reason, nothing seems to be helping, and I’m not at the point yet where I can safely do squats or leg presses. The fact that it’s on the other side too makes me think there’s some weird way I’m walking, or my posture, so I guess I’ll have to talk to the physio about adjusting that, too. Hhhh. The reason it’s so important to build that medial quad is because it helps stabilise the patella – my ITB and lateral quads are way too strong and pull my unstable kneecaps to the outside of their shallow sockets – hence my problem with dislocations, and subsequent surgeries.

What Else?

Hmm, I’m pretty boring lately. All I do is study, watch Korean dramas, play the Witcher 3 on my (Christmas present) PS4 Pro (wtf, thank you BB!! *_*) and try to get out of the house and explore when I can. Things are pretty uncertain since we don’t know whether we’ll be moving or where, still.

Oh, and we don’t have aircon and live next to a forest on a hill, so it’s been almost unbearably hot, especially with Dysautonomia symptoms…not to mention the fact that the floors somehow started condensating and wouldn’t dry for days?? It was as if they’d just been mopped, no matter what. Super scary for me, considering on my last surgery, I slipped on a mopped floor and tore my incision open.

Things to be Thankful For

I feel like I’m overwhelmingly negative in these blogs, so I want to balance it out with some positive things.

Feeling healthier and lighter with a tweaked diet that I know works for and helps my situation most

Being able to get up and be more independent

Having time with BB and family

My puppy seems to be tolerating instead of hating me lately

Able to go to the pool (once…in the seniors rehab pool lol)

My Irish skin seems to be tanning without burning for the most part?? Finally!

Able to explore the Coast and Northern NSW – super pretty

More stable work for BB – yay! *_*

Able to start planning our lives more – for someone like me, uncertainty is like a constant stress weighing me down

Planning lots more posts and taking things in a direction I want and am passionate about – stay tuned!

That’s about it for now! Thanks for reading 🙂

Love, Lo x

About Me

Hi!

I’m Lola, a qualified Beauty Therapist based in Australia. I have Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and aim to live the fullest life I can, while managing my health issues. I hope I can help others who are dealing with similar things!